


Dissolution

by alessandralee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Unrequited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-17
Packaged: 2018-01-16 02:43:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1328926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grant overhears that Jemma and Trip have ended things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dissolution

“I just couldn’t do it anymore, Skye. I couldn’t stand sitting around worrying about him, not knowing if he’d come back from his missions. And half the time I didn’t even know he was on a mission until I got a phone call from a hospital telling me that he was going to be fine. It was just too much.”

“I know, I know. It’s okay. I’m sure he understands.”

“And I couldn’t even break things off properly. I did it over a phone call. While he was lying in a hospital bed in Moscow. I’m a terrible person.”

“You’re not a terrible person. You haven’t seen him for months, and you didn’t know when you’d see him again. It was better than stringing him along.”

Grant knows he shouldn’t be lurking outside of Jemma’s room, listening to Skye console her, but he is. He also knows he shouldn’t be happy that Jemma broke things off with Trip. And he’s not, not really. He considers Jemma a friend, and Trip was the closest thing he had to onebefore joining Coulson’s team, so he really does feel bad for them.

And besides, it not like this breakup makes anything between him and Jemma more likely to happen.

He burned that bridge already.  
_________________________

It’s another case of him overhearing a conversation. This time it’s between Coulson and Garrett. 

“Might be sooner than you think. My man Trip’s got eyes for that biotech gal of yours.”

He dismisses it initially. Trip and Garett work alone and, barring extreme circumstances, so does his team. They won’t be seeing the two specialists for a long time. And besides, he is more than happy with May, even if there are moments when he can’t tear his eyes away from Jemma.

Throw in one Asgardian siren and suddenly his personal life has gone to hell. His relationship with May, fragile to begin with, has gone down in flames. And Lorelei ‘s influenced has forced him to stop denying his feelings for Jemma. Not that he can really afford to screw things up with another team member. So he keeps his mouth shut, and decides he’s going to wait until his feelings fade. He just hopes that’s sooner rather than later.

So a part of him is glad when their next mission somehow includes Garrett and Trip. And he’s relieved (but still disappointed, although he thinks he covered that up well) when Fitz comes across Jemma and Trip half dressed in one of the lab’s storage closets.

He spends the next few months hardening himself to their relationship. He leaves the room when Jemma and Skye talk about him. He rolls his eyes when even Fitz gives their relationship a glowing recommendation. 

But it’s not enough. Jemma and Skye talk about Trip before briefings sometimes, so he still knows that he sent Jemma a tiny statuette of the Eiffel Towel from a mission in Paris (Ward’s been to Paris, he’s seen those statuettes, and he knows they’re not that impressive). Trip and Garrett end up joining them on more missions, and when he asks Coulson why that’s necessary, Coulson’s reasons aren’t exactly strong.

So he freezes Jemma out to the best of his ability. He doesn’t stop by the lab to say hello on his way to the training room (which he frequents more and more often in an attempt to workout his frustrations). He doesn’t talk to her if it doesn’t concern a mission. He eats his dinners in his room. When Skye confronts him about it, he says he’s just focused on his work. When Jemma confronts him about it, ignoring the closed door to his bunk one night after he skips out on dinner, he tells her she’s imagining things. He doesn’t think she buys it.

So when he hears and Jemma and Trip are no more, he has no reason to be pleased about it. She probably hates him at this point. But a small part of him, a part that he would never admit to, is glad.

**Author's Note:**

> Written in a largely failed attempt to fill the prompt "schadenfruede" from tumblr user purficklyclean.


End file.
